The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland is the world's first and only rotating boat lift. 位于苏格兰的福尔柯克轮是世界上第一个也是目前唯一的一个旋转升船机。 Opened in 2002, it is central to the ambitious ￡84.5m Millennium Link project to restore navigability across Scotland by reconnecting the historic waterways of the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals. 它于2002年开始运营，是规模宏大的耗资8450万英镑的千年连接工程的核心部分，这一工程旨在通过重连福斯运河﹑克莱德运河和联合运河之间的水路来修复苏格兰的航运。

The major challenge of the project lay in the fact that the Forth & Clyde Canal is situated 35 metres below the level of the Union Canal. 这一工程的主要挑战在于福斯&克莱德运河位于联合运河的水下35米。 Historically, the two canals had been joined near the town of Falkirk by a sequence of 11 locks - enclosed sections of canal in which the water level could be raised or lowered - that stepped down across a distance of 1.5 km. 从前，这两条运河是通过福尔柯克镇附近的11个水闸连接起来的，这些水闸其实就是运河的闭合部分，可以调节水位高低，宽约1.5千米。 This had been dismantled in 1933, thereby breaking the link. 这些水槽在1933年被拆卸，所以两条运河之间的连接就断掉了。 When the project was launched in 1994, the British Waterways authority were keen to create a dramatic twenty-first- century landmark which would not only be a fitting commemoration of the Millennium, but also a lasting symbol of the economic regeneration of the region. 当这一工程于1994年重新开工的时候，英国航道管理局有心把它建成21世纪的一大地标工程，不仅是为了纪念新千年，同时也一直象征着这一地区的经济变革。

Numerous ideas were submitted for the project, including concepts ranging from rolling eggs to tilting tanks, from giant see- saws to overhead monorails. 关于这项工程，人们贡献了无数的想法和点子，从旋转球到倾斜槽，从巨型秋千再到空中单轨。 The eventual winner was a plan for the huge rotating steel boat lift which was to become The Falkirk Wheel. 最后的赢家是一个建造巨型钢制的旋转升船机的计划，也就是后来的福尔科克轮。 The unique shape of the structure is claimed to have been inspired by various sources, both manmade and natural, most notably a Celtic double- headed axe, but also the vast turning propeller of a ship, the ribcage of a whale or the spine of a fish. 滚轮独具匠心的外观据说是受到了多方启发，有人工建筑也有大自然的启发，其中最有名的几个创意分别是一把塞尔特风格的双头斧，一个巨大的螺旋桨，一条鲸鱼的胸腔，还有一条鱼的脊柱。

The various parts of The Falkirk Wheel were all constructed and assembled, like one giant toy building set, at Butterley Engineering's Steelworks in Derbyshire, some 400 km from Falkirk. 在距离福尔柯克400千米之外的德比郡巴特利炼钢厂，福尔柯克轮的各个部分，就像一个巨型积木一样被建造和组装起来。 A team there carefully assembled the 1,200 tonnes of steel, painstakingly fitting the pieces together to an accuracy of just 10 mm to ensure a perfect final fit. 炼钢厂的一队工人将1200吨钢小心翼翼地组装起来，为了保证最后的完美效果，他们艰难地将一块块的组件缝合，误差仅仅为10毫米。 In the summer of 2001, the structure was then dismantled and transported on 35 lorries to Falkirk, before all being bolted back together again on the ground, and finally lifted into position in five large sections by crane. 在2001年夏天，整套建筑又被拆解成零件，用35辆货车运到福尔柯克，在那里重新组装成五大部分，最后用吊车升起来安装完毕。 The Wheel would need to withstand immense and constantly changing stresses as it rotated, so to make the structure more robust, the steel sections were bolted rather than welded together. 福尔柯克轮在旋转的时候需要承受巨大的而且持续变化的压力，因此为了让它更加坚固，它的各个部分之间不是焊接而是闩上去的。 Over 45,000 bolt holes were matched with their bolts, and each bolt was hand-tightened. 一共超过45000个螺孔都要跟对应的螺栓匹配，每一个螺栓都是人工拧紧的。

The Wheel consists of two sets of opposing axe-shaped arms, attached about 25 metres apart to a fixed central spine. 福尔柯克轮有两只对立的斧头状的摆臂，安装在一根中心轴上，距离中轴约25米。 Two diametrically opposed water-filled 'gondolas', each with a capacity of 360,000 litres, are fitted between the ends of the arms. 两艘完全对称的容量为360000升的可蓄水的贡多拉(水槽),被放置在摆臂两端。 These gondolas always weigh the same, whether or not they are carrying boats. 无论是否装船。这些贡多拉的重量总是会保持一致。 This is because, according to Archimedes' principle of displacement, floating objects displace their own weight in water. 这是因为，根据阿基米德的固体排水原理,漂浮的物体将本身重量的水排出。 So when a boat enters a gondola, the amount of water leaving the gondola weighs exactly the same as the boat. 所以当一艘船进入贡多拉水槽的时候, 会有同等重量的水流出水槽。 This keeps the Wheel balanced and so, despite its enormous mass, it rotates through 180° in five and a half minutes while using very little power. 这样一来,水槽内就能实现重力平衡,所以无论自身有多重多大,轮子都可以在短短5分半钟的时间里转动180度, 而整个过程需要的能量并不大。 It takes just 1.5 kilowatt-hours (5.4 M J) of energy to rotate the Wheel - roughly the same as boiling eight small domestic kettles of water. 大约1.5千瓦时(5.4MJ)的能量-相当于煮沸8个茶壶的开水所需要的能量-就可以将整个系统运作起来。

Boats needing to be lifted up enter the canal basin at the level of the Forth & Clyde Canal and then enter the lower gondola of the Wheel. 首先, 由福斯-克莱德运河进入的需要往高水位运河走的船只,先开入底部水槽。 Two hydraulic steel gates are raised, so as to seal the gondola off from the water in the canal basin. 两扇液压钢制闸板将被打开,将水槽封闭。 The water between the gates is then pumped out. 闸板之间的水随即被排出。 A hydraulic clamp, which prevents the arms of the Wheel moving while the gondola is docked, is removed, allowing the Wheel to turn. 贡多拉水槽保持静止时,有一个液压闸门对它进行锁紧,不让吊臂摆动,闸门打开后,转轮就可以运行了。 In the central machine room an array of ten hydraulic motors then begins to rotate the central axle. 在中央控制室里,有10个液压马达驱动中心轴的运行。 The axle connects to the outer arms of the Wheel, which begin to rotate at a speed of 1/8 of a revolution per minute. 中心轴同转轮的外部吊臂相连, 吊臂的回转速度为0.125r每分钟。 As the wheel rotates, the gondolas are kept in the upright position by a simple gearing system. 当转轮运转之时,水槽通过一个齿轮装置垂直固定。 Two eight-metre-wide cogs orbit a fixed inner cog of the same width, connected by two smaller cogs travelling in the opposite direction to the outer cogs - so ensuring that the gondolas always remain level. 两个8米宽的齿轮围绕另一个同样宽的齿轮运转,这两个齿轮同时也同反向运转的两个更小的齿轮相连。齿轮系统可以保证水槽一致处于水平状态。 When the gondola reaches the top, the boat passes straight onto the aqueduct situated 24 metres above the canal basin. 当贡多拉水槽到达顶部的时候,水槽里的船只可以直接进入到24米高水位的运河。

The remaining 11 metres of lift needed to reach the Union Canal is achieved by means of a pair of locks. 剩余的需要到达联合运河的11米高度只能通过两个水闸来完成了。 The Wheel could not be constructed to elevate boats over the full 35-metre difference between the two canals, owing to the presence of the historically important Antonine Wall, which was built by the Romans in the second century AD. &转轮没法直接将船只送达到35米那么高,35米为两大高低运河之间的高度差, 因为中间夹了一座历史地位很高的2世纪罗马人建造的安东尼墙遗址。 Boats travel under this wall via a tunnel, then through the locks, and finally on to the Union Canal. 船只通过一个隧道从墙下穿过, 然后再到达水闸,再经由水闸到达联合运河。